Help me choose -next step for lame horse

Gingerwitch

Gingerwitch

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Little lad is still 1/10th to 2/10th lame offside near fore. X rays show no issue - nerve block shows issue is in hoof. We did 6 weeks box rest, 4 weeks paddock rest and he was sound, brought back into work and in the mean time he went out back to his normal field over night with just one horse - still sound.... big issues when he was put back into the normal herd - result him hooning round, being beaten up and me moving yards. Key result is he is lame again SO do I

a) MRI scan at my expense to see what is going on
b) box rest route again
c) out 24/7
d) write him off for a year with normal in and out
e) have tildren treatment or maybe catrophen
f) send to Rockerly Farm
g) give up and pts

By the way i am not at a yard that will do anything to help me

GW
 
How about nuclear scintigraphy to show you where in the hoof the problem is (MRI might not show this). It will probably be expensive too though! :( Sorry to hear about your pony, hope you can find a solution soon.
 
Bless you, what a worry. Fly is the same. We had nerve blocks etc, lame in near fore for the last 5 weeks, but only 1/10th or maybe 2/10th in trot. Had x-rays. Turns out he has ringbone. He is 14. He is on catrophen, second injection done on Tuesday, doing so well. He is sound in walk. Got two more jabs to go then trot up. If sound, great, crack on, he is on supplements etc. Don't give up. You need x-rays. Good luck to you. xx
 
I would agree with MRI route. My boy had similar lameness issues in front and nerveblock and xrays showed nothing. He had MRI at Animal Health Trust (Dr Sue Dyson) and it showed damage to the collateral ligament supporting the coffin joint.

It's not cheap - but having said that - do not be put off by somewhere like AHT as they are extremely good and really no more expensive than any other large veterinary hospital. And I have to say that their staff looking after the horses where absolutely brilliant! My boy had several weeks there (he had other problems too) and I would not hesitate to go there again!

Box rest may well help - with daily restricted walk exercise but ultimately that will not tell you exactly what the problem is!
 
I would say to get the shoes off. If its in the foot, and the x rays dont show anything, it could well be soft tissue damage caused by the shoes. Even if x rays showed changes, likelyhood getting the shoes off and giving him a break should help. Too many horses are pts because of foot lameness, much to do with the shoes. Dont give up.

We were given a horse that was gonna be pts because of navicular. 6 months later without shoes he was sound.
 
Certainly not g.

My old pony went lame in 1985 aged about 15 - one vet thought it was ringbone/arthritis, but he became absolutely crippled, so I changed vets to one who brought out a portable x-ray unit to the yard. He diagnosed hairline fracture to the navicular bone.

Cue... weeks of box rest to the point where he could go out but could absolutely not hoon around. I managed to find him a small paddock on somebody's smallholding which he could have to himself.

He came back into hacking work and I finally lost him in 1999 at the age of 29 to Cushings.

I think the key to this if Little Lad isn't insured is management - no hooning around!

I don't know much about him, but I do know that you had to have your much loved mare PTS recently. You don't need any more heartache at this time. If you can find somewhere quiet for him you will stand a better chance of getting him better.
 
Little lad is not insured... he would have had virtually everthing excluded that could go wrong ie legs and skin and my and oh discussed it and decided we would stump up the cash as and when requried (well he would!).

We are now at a yard where i can ask for anything so feel much better in myself at standing upto the plate on this one now.

Does anyone have any rough idea of costings - my vet is on hols till Wed and me and oh have a call booked with him to discuss the next stage.

Little lad was brought to replace gingerwitch as i supposed i knew time was limited even as far back as last summer and i really could not have gone horse shopping after i had lost such a much loved friend. Am i glad i brought him - well the head says no - he has been nothing but a plonker since i brought him - but my heart says - yes he is such a loveable little rouge and i blame myself for trying to keep him at a yard that suited my other two horses but maybe not him.

Lesson learnt = listen to MY instincts next time and act on them.

I dont think i could have a field sound orniment pts but i sometimes feel like shirking another 16 or 17 years nursing a horse - i did 13 years of "nursing" with gingerwitch and just wanted a fun horse to ride..... (being a spoilt bratt here !) i suppose with Mr Schoolmaster getting on and after the stupid comments off the newbie vet i am just having a **** horse time - so dont worry little lad wont be off to the big round up in the sky.

He is already being shod with eggbar shoes and has been since April.....he is getting magnetic boots on every night (do these wear out?) and is on superflex.

thanks gang - keep the suggestions coming and thanks to everyone whom has already made suggestions

GW
 
I have had only one horse with 'mysterious lameness' and we put him out in a field for a year. He came in sound and returned to eventing...

HOWEVER the more I learn, the more I realise we were lucky, because whilst there are a number of things that rest will cure, there are those that it won't. So, I feel I can only tell you what I would do in this situation, because it is personal (esp uninsured!). If it were mine, I would forget about local vets (no disrespect to local vets, but I have lost count of the number of times I have been there when a horse has been reerred to somewhere like Rossdales and the Rossdales vet is trying to explain that yes, a whole new work up has to be done and yes, new x-rays need to be taken and yes, new ultrasounds need to be done because they need to be done in house with very high spec equiptment and done 'their way') and pop my horse in a box to newmarket to either Rossdales, NEH or AHT and let them find the problem. Because they WILL find the problem especially if you are prepared to MRI

Good luck with your horse these lameness are horrid when there sooms to be no reason
 
Send him to Rockley or, it's not rocket science, barefoot rehab him yourself. If his radiographs are clear and he nerve blocks to the foot it's 99% certain that he has soft tissue injuries. Barefoot rehabs, professional or not, have a superb record of restoring soundness in three or four months. You'll need to ensure his diet is tip-top for a barefooter - low sugar, high fibre, mineral and vitamin balance, possible (and possibly severe in bad cases) restriction in grass intake. But you are very likely to have your horse firing on all cylinders before Christmas 2010. Don't even think of putting him down, give him away to someone who knows how to rehab him if you have to, but he is a long way from being a shooting case.
 
Jennyharvey said:
I would say to get the shoes off. If its in the foot, and the x rays dont show anything, it could well be soft tissue damage caused by the shoes. Even if x rays showed changes, likelyhood getting the shoes off and giving him a break should help. Too many horses are pts because of foot lameness, much to do with the shoes. Dont give up.

We were given a horse that was gonna be pts because of navicular. 6 months later without shoes he was sound.
Click to expand...

I also believe barefoot is the best thing ever!! x
 
Gingerwitch said:
CP - why does grass have to be restricted for barefoot? genuine question
Click to expand...

It doesn't in most cases. But horses were evolved to eat scrub and not green grass, and especially not the kind of grass grown for cows to produce maximum milk, which is what you get at livery yards that used to be dairy farms.

There is a fairly high proportion (I'd guess at around 20%) of horses barefoot who are rock-stomping in winter but feel stones in summer. Lots of owners think it's that the ground has gone hard, but it's not, it's that the grass has gone sugary. That makes the sole sensitive to stones. I have one like it, and two that are not. I keep him off grass from before midday to seven PM, which is when the sugars are highest (mornings are safest, sugar rises with the daylight) and he can do anything in his bare feet.

Now and again you get one that is, to all intents, poisoned by grass. I have one of these too. He was never laminitic, but his feet were so soft that you could bend them with your fingers. After five months with no grass at all, not only does he have totally differently shaped and very hard feet, but he is also completely free of sweet itch, from which he used to suffer very badly. I can only surmise that his liver was shot to pieces by the grass and causing him all sorts of intolerances.

We, his new carers and I, have recently been testing him and he can eat commercial ryegrass haylage, unsoaked hay, oats and molassed sugar beet with no problem. But give him half an hour a day of grass and his fetlock pulses go through the roof. He's an extreme example, but not totally uncommon.
 
Was going to say scan first however read you dont have insurance so maybe try cartophen injections first as thats not too expensive and see how that goes if they dont work then you can look at other options.
 
Ok making some progess i think..... got a couple of prices in for some lameness work ups including standing MRI's big gulp! spoke at lenght to oh and whilst he will pay for them he is saying that he would rather spend the money on treatment ie rehab or even just for his retirment rather than spend that type of cash and still not have a sound horse - i cant really blame him for that decision can i?

YM - suggest 6 weeks box rest - then small paddock rest - then lets see what happens next spring

blacksmith - getting a 2nd opinion on Sat as well - current blacksmith wont go barefoot or fit raised heels - but will fit egg bars...


anyone got anything to add?

Oh and does anyone have a number for rockerly - i dont like e-mail
 
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